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Ichibod scratches his Anime itch
by ichibod
A big hello to the fine people in the Buttonhole audience.
The great, the wise, the majestic Ichibod is back to talk to you about all things Anime after a bit of a hiatus. Our great leader and dictator for life Hillelman has coaxed me back into the fold with the promise of some rather tasty anime.
My first treat is A Tree of Palme, hereafter referred to as ATOP. Admittedly I haven't been keeping up with new Anime releases as much as I should (although I have been salivating over Hellsing Ultimate's
pending releases) and Tree of Palme slipped me by.
Don't worry Pinocchio, severed hands are high in 9 essential wooden boy vitamins Essentially Tree of Palme is a retelling of the Pinocchio story (done only as those mad anime creators can) with Palme being a wooden puppet created f... Read On |
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Fullmetal Alchemist: The Movie. Anime DVD Review
Metal arms are cool. Heh heh, yeah, cool. That'd be sweet.
by Australian Ninja
Fullmetal Alchemist The Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa is the movie that's in the running for 'most ludicrously long title'. It has arrived here at Buttonhole in all its splendifirous glory.
But what's this Fullmetal thing all about? In brief, Fullmetal Alchemist is a popular manga comic about two brothers; Edward and Alphonse Elric.
Ed and Al have studied the art of alchemy from a young age. Alchemy being the art of transmutation, or turning matter into other 'matter.'
But in typical Anime fashion it's not about turning things into gold, but serves as a reason to have a world with magic and allow the alchemists to have cool pyrotechnic battles among other things.
In the beginning of the Manga/Anime they try to bring back their dead mother, but it backfires. Anyone who's ever watched Buffy will know that magic has a pr... Read On |
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Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki! V1. Anime DVD Review
Jason attaches himself to a Harem of Anime women
by Jason
I will confess right from the start I have never been a fan of Tenchi, (star of the Anime and Manga series "No Need for Tenchi" a.k.a "Tenchi Muyo!) with the only previous experience I have being a series I used to watch on cartoon Network, a couple of years ago while waiting for Evangelion to start.
So as you would imagine I wasn't overly enthusiastic at the prospect of reviewing this DVD, but on the other hand you've gotta take the cream with the crap, so read on.
Anime would be considerably easier to classify if someone would stop inventing sub-genres within genres of Anime. With No Need for Tenchi / Tenchi Muyo we ha... Read On |
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Elemental Gelade V1. Anime DVD Review
Jason gorges himself on a feast of Anime goodness
by Jason
What we have here Buttonhole fans, is yet another Japanese cartoon. In this show the story is a simple case of boy meets girl - hang on a second this is anime - nothing's ever that simple!
The hero of this piece is a young man named Cou Van Giruet, also known as 'Cou.' Now Cou is a sky pirate and part of the crew who work for a man known simply as Boss. All Cou really wants is to become the greatest sky pirate who ever lived. Thus he is always harassing Boss to allow him to go on raids with the rest of the crew, with Boss usually telling him he is too inexperienced.
Until one day with equal parts 'pure arse' and good luck, Cou finds himself in the middle of a raid on a lar... Read On |
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Spotlight on Studio Ghibli
Feeling down? Cartoons will save you!
by Australian Ninja
Damn I loves me some cartoons.
As for Studio Ghibli, they get my vote for the 'most rockingest super-mega-hyper-awesome' Anime studio award. So awesome in fact that I feel they deserve a Buttonhole spotlight on their studio and their wonderful Animes.
Along the way I may - or may not - answer questions such as:
*What's up with that name 'Ghibli', and what does it mean?
*Has Hayao Miyazaki really retired?
*If a mime artist fall over and nobody sees it, does it make a sound?
*Where can I find these films?
*If you've never watched any of the Ghibli films, where should you start?
It is said that Studio Ghibli films bring out the child in all of us. At least somebody might have said... Read On |
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Hoop Days. Anime DVD Review
Don't you hate pants!?!
by Australian Ninja
The 'Hoop Days' Anime is about some very talented young male highschool basketball players and the challenges they face in their everyday lives. It is based on the Manga "Dear Boys", comes across as a bit fruity, so I'm glad they went with a different name for the cartoon.
It really does sound kind of boring, but I assure you - the show is excellent - and I have no interest in basketball, but the action heavy basketball game segments and soap opera drama in Hoop Days are just thrilling to watch.
Hoop Days kicks off with Kazuhiko Aikawa transferring to a new high school. He was formerly a star player in one of the best high school basketball teams in Japan. He eagerly looks forward to playing again at his new school - Mizuho. But they have a girl's team and no men's team. The reason? A former player had a falling... Read On |
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Naruto. Anime DVD Review
Go Ninja Go
by Australian Ninja
Don't read this review. Just watch the show, go on now, off you go!
Forget my review stop what you are doing and go watch the show, just do it.
Buy it, borrow it, beg for it, watch it however you can because baby you deserve it. Naruto rocks my world and damn if I'm not an addict already and Madman are planning to siphon away all my money and I won't be able to buy food or... Read On |
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Negima V1 - The Basics of Magic. Anime DVD Review
Jason casts a love spell on some Japanese school girls
by Jason
We find ourselves at Mahora academy: a typical Japanese girl's middle school, and student Asuna Kagurazaka is in the middle of what she believes to be a spell to capture the romantic attentions of her beloved professor Takahata (quite how this is going to work with a fish costume and a shitload of fried tofu I don't know). Yep just another day in an ordinary, normal school.... Read On |
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Trinity Blood - Chapter 1. Anime DVD Review
Vampires rule.
by Jason
Armageddon; the end of the world. Well not quite the end of the world really - as every representation of the fall of civilization is different, sometimes I think I would like to drop the bomb just to see who was right. Anyway, in this show's version; after all the dust has settled and all the smoke has cleared, some of humanity has survived, along with some vampires. These two species are, as you would imagine, at war with each other - with the vampires all belonging to an empire and the humans being represented by the Roman catholic church. Quite why the Catholic Church is the mortal enemy of vampires in anime is something I'll never know, but it does make for interesting plots.... Read On |
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Dragon Ball Z Movie #13
Welcome to Fireballs 'R Us
by Australian Ninja
Dragonball Z. Maybe you've heard of it. They've made ten thousand or so TV episodes and a bunch of movie specials over the years. Speaking for myself I got into the show when it was shown weekday mornings on Channel Ten a few years back [the first run in Australia.]
Later on I bought series 3-5 on DVD just to watch them, as I was no longer able to watch the show in the morning due to work commitments.
It was possibly one of the biggest wastes of money in my life [total $ spent = scary] but I greatly enjoyed watching the DVDs and still love the show so really I can't... Read On |
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Spirit Of Wonder. Anime DVD Review
Jason is more familiar with spirits than he is with wonder.
by Jason
Somewhat deceptive, this one. By looking at Spirit of Wonder's cover (or even just the title), you could assume you were about to watch a heartwarming tale of the rediscovery of youth and other such themes. What we have instead are the longer feature The Scientific Boys Club and two shorter Miss China adventures. All of the stories are set in Bristol England in what I presume to be the early 1900's and they do complement each other quite well.... Read On |
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Madman's Crazy 10th Anniversary. Press Release
$10 a Disc Online Sale!!
by Hillelman
Madman is a name that I am sure is well known and loved by many of you marvellous Buttonholers, especially those who are into Anime.
Well, we like them too! They've always looked after Buttonhole & helped us out in numerous ways. They also send us many wonderful DVDs for review. So, indeed we are rather fond of those boys and girls, to say the least!... Read On |
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Galaxy Angel 'A' Collection. Anime DVD Review
So, Aussie Ninja, what the hell is going on in this show?
by Australian Ninja
Galaxy Angels who save the, uh, galaxy? The name reminds me of both the Galaxy Rangers and Charlie's Angels. But this show is nothing whatsoever like those shows. Now that my exciting but uneventful intro is done with, read the review.... Read On |
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Saiyuki Reload V1. Anime DVD Review
Jason never fires blanks
by Jason
For various reasons, I haven't actually seen the first season of Saiyuki - so I did wonder if, when I watched this one, I would have any idea as to what was going on. As it turns out, this show is very easy to follow, so it doesn't matter if you've seen the previous series or not.... Read On |
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Serenity. Trade Paperback Comic Review
Australian Ninja asks "How's the Serenity?"
by Australian Ninja
Dinosaur A "We will rule this land. And we will call it...this land"
Dinosaur B "I think we should call it your grave"
Dinosaur A "Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!"
Both Dino's "Aarrghh, arrghh arrghhhh - mine is an evil laugh, now die!"
Firefly and Serenity. A Western sci-fi that rocked my world but now has gone the way of the dinosaurs.... Read On |
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Darkstalkers. Trade Paperback Comic Review
When the darkness comes, nothing can save you.
by Australian Ninja
Darkstalkers Volume #1: The Rise of the Dark ones is another fine adaptation of a Capcom videogame by UDON Entertainment.
Unlike game to movie adaptations - which generally suck ass - game to comic-book adaptations have a much better track record. Sure, there are plenty of dodgy ones. But there is an increasing amount of quality jollity product being put out now on a regular basis.
The Darkstalkers comic is well, anything less than the phrase... Read On |
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Eureka Seven: Volume One. Anime DVD Review
Finally, the Anime reviews have come back...to Buttonhole!
by Jason
The Press Release blurb that accompanies the first disc on this series sounds somewhat generic for an anime release; troubled boy meets a girl, giant robot, and blah blah blah... things I'm sure we've all heard before. Does this one offer anything to make it stand out and rise to the level of the classics? Well, I don't know for sure yet, but it certainly has potential.... Read On |
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Savage Dragon: Baptism of Fire. Trade Paper Back Review
Aussie Ninja enters, with drag on.
by Australian Ninja
Erik Larsen's "Savage Dragon" continues to be one of the best traditional superhero comics around today.
Baptism of Fire is where Dragon's story began over ten years ago. Over ten years and 100-plus issues later, Savage Dragon is still going strong.
... Read On |
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Q&A with Jesse Reklaw from Slow Wave
Aussie Ninja kicks some more arse with his first Q&A article
by Australian Ninja
Recently I took the time to do a Q&A with Jesse Reklaw, the creator of the website www.slowwave.com and the Slow Wave comic/web-strip. If you've never been to the site, then you owe it to yourself to check out one of the best comic strips you can find on the Internet. Go ahead, and hey, be sure to read this amazingly stupendous Q&A article as well, okay?... Read On |
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Webcomics : The comics of tomorrow?
Aussie Ninja shares his love of comics on the internet
by Australian Ninja
E-Comics. What the heck are they and why should we waste our time with them? These questions and more have bugged mankind since the beginning of time. Why am I here? When will I become mega-successful and start my career in being a well paid rich person? Where do all my missing left socks go?... Read On |
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